Agree with morethen Grades are not the most important part, but general musicality and potential are important. I would not be worried about slips as this alone will not make any difference.PS Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor is a kind of piece which is played a lot in concerts/auditions and competitions.I would really avoid popular pieces like that for auditions as the judges know it inside out and will expect a really high standards (if this makes sense ). But hopefully her piano teacher thought it would be good piece for the audition so she must play it really well. Fingers crossed

Thank you all for your help She played her Chopin piece at a school concert because i also thought that she needs to practice performing. She said she was surprised by how nervous she was. About 4 months ago she switched piano teachers to one who teaches at the JRNCM, and since she moved piano teachers i can see a huge difference in her playing. There is always next year if the results are negative.

PS, try and get her lots of performance ops before any future audition. Helps with performance nerves.

But hope she gets it this time around anyway, and you can ignore this!

(If it helps, daughter went in to warm up for her audition and everywhere round her other applicants were playing what is probably equivalent to Rach 2 for a pianist! Very unnerving, but she still got in. Chin up!)

Encouraging post from close to the horse's mouth from morethan. Fingers crossed for you. But if you want to prepare for possible turning down this time you could, as I'm sure you're doing, assure her that you'll support her and be proud of her whatever the outcome, and also, this is not a forever; if the worst happens, treat it as a 'mock' and go for it again next year. OR move on and look for other kinds of things to do - Pro Corda for example (easily found via Google). She's still very young. Have you asked for a consultation lesson, or two from a teacher at the ROyal Northern? You could then get an honest opinion and also idea on what to work on - and get an idea of the teachers available there if you don't have that already. Zero to grade two level in a stringed instrument sounds pretty good.

Did strike me that auditioning on three instruments was rather demanding in terms of getting so much material up to audition standard. Did they ask her to do that? If she gets turned down this time, you could think about that maybe? Most junior departments ask for all music experience, so you put down grades in everything and that can lead you to audition on everything almost by default if that's the way they arrange things. DD (not for Junior Northern but one of the London ones) wrote that she only wanted to audition on X and that was accepted; OK, she didn't audition for them in the end so I don't know what the outcome would have been!

I don't think the grade is important at Manchester anyway. My dh has pupils who have never done exams gain places and a grade 8 at 10 who didn't get in. They are looking for potential but also somebody they can work with. As your dd was nervous she wouldn't have come across as too confident that the teachers felt they would find it hard to talk to her.The grade 8 I mentioned, was a proper little madam, who thought she knew it all, I'm sure this was the reason they rejected her. Good luck to your dd. Mine is only 9 but wants to try in the future.

They are looking for potential. But she's at the lower end of what they normally take, in Grade terms. If her voice is good that will help! PM me if you want to talk about good Manchester singing teachers!

Don't know about JRNCM but the 13 yr olds at ds's school that got senior school scholarships this year were all grade 7 on their main instruments. Not sure about second instrument grades but I think they were grade 5 and voice at least that but I don't think they do voice grades (cathedral choristers). Hope she is successful.

hi there,my daughter has audtitioned for JRNCM this year, and is waiting for the results. She is 13, and is very nervous! She plays piano- done her grade 5, and is currently studying grade 6+ repetiore, voice-grade 4/5, cello-grade 2. She started the cello in September, her voice last year and her piano 4 years ago. She is wondering about the standard of the people at there, and her chances of passing her audition. She played Chopin -Nocturne in C sharp minor on piano and oscar peterson- jazz exersice number 3, cello- bella siccome un angelo, and her voice piece was down by the salley gardens. When i hear her play i can hear that she puts expression into her pieces, and i think she has potential, but the thing is what do they think... just asking for what you think and whether she stands a chance, she is eager to get in. Thanks